Fear of death can be crippling unless one knows how to benefit from it by using that fear constructively. The following quote by Mark Twain captures the essence of how to do so.
The idea is to use fear of death as a motivation to live life to the fullest. Since one does not know when death can strike, one can start every day by feeling thankful to be alive than taking life for granted. It helps to do so when one realises that millions of people around the world do not make it to a new day! Fear of death can make one truly grateful to life and everything in it.
Once one realises how every new day is a gift from life, one can do one's best to live every single day to the fullest without unreasonable guilt of past or worry of future. This will lead to living in the present moment, and that has the power to make miracles happen in one's life.
The fear of death can make one love others better. Since one does not know about the arrival time of death, one will take every opportunity to express their love and caring to people who matter. At the same time, one will not be bothered unreasonably by people who do not really matter.
One is afraid of death due to two main reasons. First, death wipes out one's physical body, and for most people that also means losing their "self" or "identity". This could be one of the reasons why many people want their own progeny. That type of physical continuity makes one believe that one has cheated death because one can still go on living after death through the progeny. Therefore, such folks can use fear of death to leave a legacy in the form of a child, a book or any other creation.
Many people find it disgustingly fearful to imagine their own decomposing body after death. It takes a little thinking to realise that it does not matter what happens once one is dead. Death in itself need not be painful. It is the process leading to death that can be painful. What truly matters is not life after death, but life before death!
The second reason people are afraid of death is that they defer living their dream life to tomorrow or to a future date, and if they die today their dreams will remain unfulfilled.
So, if you are truly afraid of death, use that fear to live your dream life without deferring it to a future date. That means, from this very moment of reading this blog, visualise and act how to live your dreams today so that you are ready even if death visits you tomorrow. Do something you love, and love someone as much as you love yourself. All the best!
Hi Manoj,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your lucid writing style.
However, my views are little different on the subject. Albeit, I agree to your point of ‘every new day is a gift from life’, but I would not go with the idea of 'benefitting from the fear of death'. Instead of dwelling on ‘Why one fears death?’, let us consider ‘Can we eradicate the fear of death?’ . That is possible only when we become soul conscious rather than body conscious. Perhaps, I’ve mentioned it earlier (when Rajesh Khanna passed away). All our apprehension of death would disappear the moment we understand that the body is only a costume of the soul. The way we change our costume, similarly, the soul also changes its costume at some interval of time.
Let us Live, Love, Dream, Enjoy, Help, spread Happiness…….....not because one day we would die…but because these are the characteristics of a pure soul.
Hope, I'm not being misunderstood with my views which are very much personal and may not be acceptable by all.
Be Happy & Be Blessed!
Regards,
Bichitra
@ Bichitra: Thanks for your appreciation. As a keen student of Jnana Yoga, I fully agree with your comments on eradication of fear of death by realising the immortality of the soul. However, my blog is for general public who may not believe or appreciate the concept of the soul's existence and immortality. So, I have suggested to benefit from the fear than eradicating it. This applies to all types of fear.
DeleteDear Manoj,
ReplyDeleteIt is a brilliant piece of writing, giving fresh insight to relook life while gaining strength from the fear factor. In my view, a win-win situation with life is to encash your every weakness at the best exchange rate and convert them into your strength. Even if it is the fear of death.
Seeking motivation from fear of death is indeed a good strategy for living than just keeping oneself alive. Freudian theories speak of inherent co-existence of fear of death with life, as thanatophobia. Interestingly, we do not fear death since we have never experienced it. Only after we have seen death and heard about death, we have tried to map the death related fear into our life . More inhibiting is, we don’t know how much more we would live from this point onwards, as you have rightly narrated.
Removal of the above two factors objectively would enrich our living.
As a support to the soul concept posted by Bichitra, I forward the following link that contains a story by Prafulla Kar, published in Dharitri today.
http://www.dharitri.com/epaper/150812/p6.htm
Regards
Manoranjan
Thanks Manoranjan for your encouraging words. The additional information in your comment are enriching. I think the article in Dharitri also suggests us to give more importance to life before death than to life after death, because all "naked" souls are the same and our uniqueness exists only when the soul is dressed with a body.
DeleteNice article Manoj, it is sparking off some interesting thoughts!
ReplyDeleteI would like to live so that I can fulfill God's purpose for my life. Oxymoron as this may sound, to live in Christ means to die to sin and to die to the desires of the flesh. This is the death that truly gives victory and makes happiness abound and pervade one's entirety.
I would like to linger only so long as God has work for me to do, while i am here and would be glad to bow down and make my exit when the time comes, because that i believe would be the perfect time, when His work would have been completed :-)
Quoting from the Bible, "There is a perfect season for everything"